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Facebook has finally arrived on the iPad, unveiling an official application for Apple's tablet computer. The social network has unveiled several mobile channels designed to encourage app discovery on mobile platforms. Facebook bowed to Apple, however, by barring developers from using Credits on iOS devices, even as it rolled out the feature for mobile Web apps.

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Many free Facebook applications are clunky or useless -- but there are several free apps that any socially minded business should consider making use of, writes Jesse Stanchak. SurveyMonkey lets brands learn about their fans with polls and surveys; RSS Graffiti turns any page into a content hub; and Livestream lets companies share major live events via streaming video.

Facebook would need a huge increase in profit per user to justify its current private-market valuation, researchers say. Using techniques from physics and economics, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology calculate that Facebook will need to boost per-user profitability by as much as six times to live up to its current valuation.

Facebook has acquired a service that lets users answer a range of questions to find potential friends with common interests or characteristics. Friend.ly allows users search for questions they wish to answer and see how others have answered. The acquisition is the latest in Facebook's projected series of 15 this year.

Wal-Mart is launching a Facebook application that offers tailored local-level marketing for each of its 3,600 stores in the U.S. The app will reach Wal-Mart's 9.4 million Facebook fans, but likely won't affect the chain's other local advertising initiatives, officials say. "It's really an extension of what we ought to be doing anyway, which is paying attention to what customers want," says Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Quinn.

Facebook reportedly will unveil its long-awaited iPad application at Apple's iPhone 5 launch event on Oct. 4, and perhaps will also announce a new iPhone application and a mobile-app marketplace. The announcement could heighten tensions between Apple and Facebook, Nick Bilton writes. "[W]hen you have two of the largest companies in technology battling for control and integration of their respective networks, there's definitely going to be some bloodshed along the way," Bilton writes.